Spiderans (3.5e Race)

Spiderans

Personality

Spiderans don't have a particular personality type, they vary as much as humans do. You'll find the best and most noble among their ranks as well as the most vile and sinister. What is common among them is that they are hunters, typically the apex predators in whatever area they inhabit. Usually Spiderans are solitary or occasionally in small or family groups. Most Spiderans don't need money, or other things common to the civilized world, to survive. They make their own living by hunting, using various strategies, from actively hunting, to making webs and waiting to ambush prey. Because they often live alone and are hairy, they usually don't have clothes. Spiderans build their own homes with their webs. Thus, if they venture out into the world and society at large it is for other reasons. They do sometimes do this depending on the individual's motivations.

In D&D there are spidermen. They are considered one of the strongest beings in magic ,close to spellbinders, and might even be considered the strongest to some. Their magical knowledge is so secret that they are cursed to be watched forever. The spider is one of the most powerful of creatures in D&D and it has the power of reach, to fight creatures with flying. This make the Spidermen so powerful. Some spidermen are sinister and tell the knowledge they know to others sorcerers. They are superior though and know they are powerful. Never really abused by wizards, they tell magical knowledge to drive them insane and kill them. Example, immortality. A Spiderman would tell an evil wizard that the secret of immortality and drive him insane from it. Spiderman in comics though is friendly. A vast scientific genius. Thus, the friendly neighborhood Spiderman.

Physical Description

Spiderans are about human sized, with tough chitin-like hides, lots of hairs on them, almost like fur, but not quite. The hairs function as sensory organs. In order to grow, Spiderans shed their skin (a process called molting) and are able to regrow limbs with each molt. Once they are adults they don't grow, but they do refresh their skin by molting and can regrow limbs over time. The older a Spideran is the longer this process takes. Spiderans are vulnerable for several days after molting as they have to rest and let their skin and their internal bone structure harden after growth has taken place. Spiderans have 8 limbs with clawed hands/feet which they can use for walking and manipulating objects. They have eight eyes, with two large one's facing forward and other eyes placed symmetrically in other directions. Their eye arrangement would remind one of a jumping spider. Spiderans have both chitin-like hides which have muscles that attach to them, as well as an internal bony structure that have muscles attached to them, too. They also have internal vessels in their joints and limbs that utilize blood pressure, acting like a hydraulic system to help power their dynamic and sudden movements. (Real life spiders actually have this hydraulic-like system.) With these features, combined with multiple limbs, Spiderans are unusually strong, especially compared to other creatures of comparable size, and usually make them notably heavier than humans of the same height. Males and females are of similar size overall but their proportions are different. Females look more stocky, thick, and rounded compared to males, and males look almost like thinner, slightly stretched out versions of females with longer legs. Males sometimes have more vivid coloration to skin and hair, though the coloration still enables them to blend into their surroundings well. This is partly due to the color scheme, in the way it is patterned (Spiderans have various hair/skin colors and patterns, mostly symmetrical), and because Spiderans have a limited ability to change their color, similar to certain crab spiders. This makes them very effective at hiding and greatly enhances their abilities as ambush predators. Spiderans are able to stand upright, and often do. When standing upright, everything is upright. Their torso would be vertical, narrowing slightly from the shoulders down to the small of the back, near where a human waist would be. From the small of the back to a bit below where a human's private areas would be, Spiderans have a slightly bulbous lower body, that is rounded backwards, it does not protrude out to the front. This slightly rounded lower body is not big, about the size of a soccer ball in males, and about 1.5 times that in females, sometimes rounding out towards the sides a little, almost like how human females tend to have rounder wider hips than males. A female that is pregnant with eggs has an even larger lower body. At the bottom of this lower body, are spinnerets from which the Spideran spins webs. Just above the spinnerets, there are tiny slits in the front of the lower body. These slits, which are very hard to see, are openings to a lower set of lungs. Spiderans also have spinnerets in their hands/feet, enabling them to climb nearly any surface, as well as using the webs in fighting and grappling. Spiderans use their webs for all sorts of things and they can spin different kinds of webs, sticky and non-sticky, with varying degrees of elasticity as well. Although Spiderans do often stand upright, they are fully capable of walking and climbing with all 8 limbs, which is usually how they move in webs. They can also use their webs to swing from things and travel that way, but there has to be something generally overhead in relation to direction of travel for them to shoot their webs onto, in order for them to travel this way. With their web homes combined with their ability to climb all surfaces and ability to web swing, their homes can sometimes be found in unusual and difficult terrain, places in which most humanoids would have a difficult time maneuvering. Spiderans can live almost anywhere from underground caverns, to forests and tree tops, to mountain tops, deserts, jungles, swamps, and even underwater environments, using their body hairs and webs to trap air bubbles for them to breathe. Their metabolism can adjust somewhat to their environment, so they can live even in places where you wouldn't think there was enough food to support such a predator. Of course they do prefer more food over less food if they have the choice. A Spideran living in a place where food is scarce, will still grow to full size, it just takes longer between molts. Their mouths are full of small sharp teeth, with large fangs on each side that open up sideways. The other part of the mouth/jaw opens vertically like a human's. When the mouth is closed, the fangs cross each other, giving the Spideran a somewhat tusked look.

Relations

Spiderans have no particular favoritism of one race over another, but this is in part because most Spiderans rarely interact with the world at large, usually leading simple lives hunting for their survival. However, sometimes their territory may cross into farmlands. Spiderans who are evil would have no problem killing and eating livestock or people. As strong as Spiderans are, these evil Spiderans have given the race a bad name among most civilized areas. This further encourages most Spiderans to avoid civilized areas and live their simple solitary lives in peace. Those that do decide to interact with the world and society at large have to be willing to face the stigma of racial hatred against them. It doesn't help that most Spiderans move in sudden twitchy bursts that most races find very disturbing, and that because of their solitary nature, often lack social graces. There have been some who have decided to help the local populace, protecting trade routes and preventing other predators from harming livestock. In those cases the Spideran would gain a positive reputation in that local region. In subterranean areas, Spiderans that encounter goblinoids and the like, inevitably come into conflict. Usually the Spiderans eat a lot of goblinoids before either the Spideran is forced out, or the goblinoids leave the area. As such, Spiderans are natural enemies to goblinoids, with goblinoids attacking the Spideran on sight if they outnumber the Spideran, or fleeing otherwise. Most other subterranean races know enough to leave Spiderans alone if at all possible. Even the drow don't provoke them, giving them a wide berth if they ever stumble upon one. Among their own kind, relations can vary tremendously. For example, relationships between males and females can range from as troublesome as cannibalism all the way to wonderfully happy, lifelong monogamous husband and wife relationships. Some Spiderans will cooperate with one another, even becoming good loyal friends, while others will fight to the death over territory, food, or just because they think the other looked at them funny. It depends on the individuals involved. In most cases, if an adventuring party has a Spideran member and the people know about it, that adventuring party will be viewed with suspicion, with the general populace most likely unwilling to help the adventurers, or worse the adventurers could be treated with outright hostility and aggression.

Alignment

Chaotic is most common, but there are no restrictions. Spiderans of all alignments exist and are not rare.

Lands

Spiderans can be found in all lands, and often prefer remote regions. But because they are mostly solitary, they have no nation, or even city, of their own. There are occasional large communities, but these are very rare, and even these communities are in remote regions to which most humanoids would have a difficult time finding access. They are willing to band together, even with other races, if the region faced a common foe that threatened to destroy everybody/everything. There are some epic ancient legends of such instances, but few know those legends, as they are lost to the past. Thus, only the most scholarly historian would even know of their existence let alone know the legends themselves.

Religion

Any or none, usually something following the individual's alignment.

Language

Spideran, any others are possible, most likely the languages of the races in or near the area the Spideran lives, but in order to be literate, 2 skill points must be spent like a barbarian. They can communicate with spiders, including monstrous spiders. A few Spiderans have actually trained nearby monstrous spiders to guard their lairs and such.

Names

Any are possible, no pattern, they can adapt names from surrounding cultures or have totally unique names, even unique among their own kind.

Racial Traits

• +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -6 Charisma: With their extra muscles and hydraulic-like internal vessels, Spiderans are very strong and tough, and able to move with quickness and an unusual athletic dynamic power. Their solitary nature, lack of social graces, disturbingly twitchy movements, and the unfortunately bad racial reputation, gives their Charisma a significant penalty
• Monstrous Humanoid: Hit die D8, Attack equals Hit dice, good Reflex and Will saves, Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die.
• Medium: No bonus or penalty
• Spiderans base land speed is 50 feet: Climb also 50 feet; Web swing 100ft, though to travel this way, there must be something generally overhead in relation to direction of travel
• Low-Light Vision: A creature with low-light vision can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of shadowy illumination. It retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Tremorsense(Ex): A creature with tremorsense automatically senses the location of anything that is in contact with the ground within 100 feet or anywhere in their webs. Spiderans can also sense the location of creatures moving through water. If no straight path exists through the ground from the creature to those that it’s sensing, then the range defines the maximum distance of the shortest indirect path. It must itself be in contact with the ground, and the creatures must be moving. As long as the other creatures are taking physical actions, including casting spells with somatic components, they’re considered moving; they don’t have to move from place to place for a creature with tremorsense to detect them. Spiderans can also detect anything in their webs in a similar fashion.
• Venom (Poison)(Ex): Injury (bite), 1d4 Strength, secondary 1d4 Strength, cumulative with repeated bites, permanent if bitten again after Strength reaches zero, Fortitude Save, DC 10 + ½ Spideran's HD + Spideran's Con modifier
• Blindsight(Ex): Some creatures have blindsight, the extraordinary ability to use a nonvisual sense (or a combination of such senses) to operate effectively without vision. Such sense may include sensitivity to vibrations, acute scent, keen hearing, or echolocation. This ability makes invisibility and concealment (even magical darkness) irrelevant to the creature (though it still can’t see ethereal creatures and must have line of effect to a creature or object to discern that creature or object). This ability operates out to a range specified in the creature description. The creature usually does not need to make Spot or Listen checks to notice creatures within range of its blindsight ability. Unless noted otherwise, blindsight is continuous, and the creature need do nothing to use it. Blindsight never allows a creature to distinguish color or visual contrast. A creature cannot read with blindsight. Blindsight does not subject a creature to gaze attacks (even though darkvision does). Blinding attacks do not penalize creatures using blindsight. Deafening attacks thwart blindsight if it relies on hearing. Blindsight works underwater but not in a vacuum. Blindsight negates displacement and blur effects.
• Regeneration (Limited, Ex): Spiderans can regrow limbs over time through molting (shedding their skin), this is limited to only limbs, if their main body is damaged it will heal, but a missing chunk will still be missing, it will just be healed like a scar in humans.
• Bonus Feats: Multidexterity, Multi-Attack, Improved Grab, Improved Grapple, Pounce
• Natural armor bonus +3 AC, scales up +1/5HD
• Natural Attacks: Claws 1d3(slashing) + Strength bonus; Bite (Secondary Attack) 1d4(piercing) + ½ Strength Bonus + Venom(Ex) automatic sneak attack for Rogue when made after a successful Grapple attack; Web - functions like a net attack, Break DC is 10+ ½ HD + Constitution Modifier, Escape Artist the same DC, Webs also have a cumulative +4 DC for each successful attack against one opponent; Grapple - +2 bonus, scales up +2/3 Character levels, and webs give no size limitation on grapple attempts; Natural attacks gain damage reduction penetration vs. magic and other types, at a rate of +1/5HD; 3 claw attacks/round at highest attack bonus, then any subsequent attacks for multi-attack or secondary attacks afterwards - improves to 5 claw attacks/round at 10 HD, and 7 claw attacks/round at 20 HD
• Hindrances/Notes: No armor allowed unless custom made. If armor is worn it reduces the effect of Blindsight, DM's discretion; no weapons allowed unless custom made: Other hindrances are primarily role play, but still very significant in campaigns with an emphasis on role play - the general populace is not fond of Spiderans at all, there is much racial prejudice against them. Although Spiderans are Monstrous Humanoids, they do not have Darkvision, instead they have Low-light Vision and Blindsight.
• Skill Bonuses: Balance +4; Climb +8 (Webs+12) - (Take 10); Craft Traps (Web Only) +10 (Spiderans can learn to make other traps, but that is treated as a different skill and the bonus only applies to web traps); Hide +10; Jump +10; Knowledge (Nature) +2; Listen +2; Move Silently +4 (+8 Webs); Spot +8; Survival +4; Tumbling +4
• Automatic Languages: Spideran. Bonus Languages: starting languages which characters may choose due to Int bonus. Literacy treated like a Barbarian.
• Favored Class: Barbarian, Ranger, Rogue.
• Level Adjustment: +4

Vital Statistics

Table: Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
20 years	+2	+ 5	+ 8

Table: Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
50 years	100 years	150 years	+ 3D12 years
At middle age, −1 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At old age, −2 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At venerable age, −3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

Table: Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	4' 10"	+3D8	150 lb.	× (3d4) lb.
Female	4' 5"	+2D10	150 lb.	× (3d4) lb.

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